![]() We hid the boat as best we could and crossed a road, contacting B Company in the village. Marine Corps Second Raider Battalion.ĭean WintersWe landed about 100 to 150 yards from the main landing point. What follows are accounts of the raid on Makin Atoll by veterans of the U.S. 30 and were eventually beheaded by the Japanese on Kwajalein Island. After evading capture for 12 days with the help of some natives, they surrendered on Aug. At least nine marines failed to reach the submarines. And only after the war did the raiders learn what had happened to some of those men. Only when the Raiders returned to Pearl Harbor could they get an accurate head count, listing 18 as killed in action and 12 as missing. After lashing several boats to a native outrigger, the men paddled out into the lagoon, meeting the subs at about 11 p.m. Carlson and the vessels established contact by flashlight and arranged a rendezvous in the calmer waters off the island’s lagoon. Several men made it through the surf to the subs. (Japanese troops found it a few days later, and Tokyo Rose commented on the note on Japanese radio.)īy dawn, a few hours after Carlson sent the surrender note, things began to brighten for the raiders. But the Japanese commanders did not get a chance to accept the surrender: The soldier was killed before he could deliver the note to his superiors. ![]() Without working radios to contact the subs, unaware of whether the subs had survived the air attacks or if his men had reached them, and believing he was facing a reinforced enemy, Carlson called a council of war and decided to surrender.īefore dawn, the battalion operations officer and another man delivered a note discussing the surrender of the remaining raiders to a Japanese soldier. ![]() ![]() The situation worsened over the next few hours. A few boats made it to the waiting submarines, but Carlson and about 120 men were stranded, most of them weaponless and weakened from their battle with the sea. Outboard motors once again failed, and heavy surf capsized several boats, keeping many of the raiders on shore. Withdrawing from Makin, however, was more difficult than invading. James Roosevelt, the president’s son, agreed to withdraw from the island rather than continue to engage the Japanese. Carlson and his officers, including the battalion executive officer, Maj. American plans, however, did not call for holding the island the raiders were scheduled to assault Little Makin Island the next day. Although seaplanes carrying reinforcements were destroyed by ground fire, and the subs managed to sink the boats using indirect fire from their deck guns, the Japanese retained control of the air, with several enemy planes strafing the raiders. The Japanese attempted to reinforce Makin by air and sea. Raider casualties began to mount, but the Americans’ attack was more successful than they realized: They had unknowingly killed most of the Japanese on the island. ![]() Shortly after landing, the Raiders engaged the Japanese garrison in a fierce firefight that included two banzai attacks. Most of the outboard motors on the boats failed, but somehow the men made it ashore. When they surfaced, the men set out for shore in rubber boats amid heavy rains and a tumultuous sea. The raiders approached Makin in two submarines, Nautilus and Argonaut. The raid on Makin Atoll was primarily a diversion to lure Japanese attention away from the main landings at Guadalcanal, but things went badly from the start. Evans Carlson, made one of the most perilous raids of the war. 7, 1942, landings at Guadalcanal, A and B Companies of the Second Raider Battalion, led by Lt. ![]()
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